Silver Bells
by Rin0rourke
Summary: Danny Fenton, Casper High's very own scrooge, is placed in charge of the secret Santa gifts until Friday. What fun. Bad news to Dash Baxter, who's eager to see what he got, and from whom. twoshot
1. Gift Wrapped

Perhaps it was the frigid temperature outside, misting his breath and confusing his ghosts sense, permanently setting him on edge, or maybe it was the fact that he had just spent the past fifteen minutes in a locker because Dash Baxter had decided by some unknown formula that it was his fault wet snow soaked his new designer sneakers, or maybe it was simply that this time of the year always just pissed him off. Whatever reason behind it Danny arrived, late, to Mr. Lancer's class bruised, agitated, and in one of the foulest moods he'd known since freshman year.

Friday his class, along with the rest of the junior student body, had the good fortune to be given printouts the size of Chinese fortune cookie slips, each having on it a name randomly chosen by a computer program. They were, as the teacher instructed, to play secret Santa or 'mystery gift giver' if you want to get anal about such things. So here he was, trying to ignore the sniggers of his classmates and Lancer's cold death glare of teacher disapproval, on a cold Monday morning, with his triple R necessities and a small package hidden beneath layers of Fenton Wrap tucked beneath his arm, an expensive gift for a grossly undeserving person.

"Mr. Fenton, I assume the term 'secret' Santa eludes you?" Lancer inquired with a raised brow, indicating to the wrapping with large green Fs and his father's own smiling mug inked onto the paper.

"Apparently," Danny deadpanned and a few students giggled.

Truth was, despite his parents' rather impressive salary and substantial savings; he had to deal with a minuscule allowance that after saving two months was almost enough to buy a new computer game he had wanted. Yet Friday every junior teacher announced, reminded, broadcasted over loudspeakers, repeated until ears bled, and all but performed neurosurgery in an attempt to get as many people as possible to participate in this pointless pitiful excuse of good will. So he had spent his money on a stupid gift for someone he neither liked nor cared about, and with a total of forty-five cents left to his name he used the cheep wrapping paper that even his father thought was tacky and didn't decorate gifts with.

Yet the Christmas spirit was strong with this particular teacher and even Danny's foul mood and sarcastic teenage wit couldn't kill the glittering tree-lights in his eyes. Lancer simply moved on to roll without so much as a retort or detention slip.

"Well," Lancer said after the last half-dead student gave a lazy wave and a muttered 'here', "I'm sure you all are eager to receive your gifts."

There was a chorus of cheers. Mr. Lancer had taught high school long enough to know when to be patient, so he merely held up a hand and waited. "However," He finally said and the silence started in the room again, the students tense and waiting for whatever bad news would come, as bad news always did after a teacher uttered the word 'however.'

"However, there are a few who have either not had the chance, the money, or simply didn't feel like buying a gift. So the other teachers and I have decided to postpone it all until Friday."

The chorus returned, this time warped with disappointed complaints. "Might I add that, as of this morning this is now for a grade?" Lancer said loudly and the complaints started to trickle off. "I know many of you brought your gifts today and I also realize how easy it is, especially for young adults like yourselves, to misplace important things." He looked pointedly at a student well known for forgetting assignments, the girl ducked her head sheepishly and he went on.

"So your other teacher's and I devised a way to keep safe your gifts until Friday comes, and that is to trust the whole of it to a single student."

A boy, one whose chipper, helpful attitude always reminded him creepily of his sister, took the bait and asked, "Just one student, but Mr. Lancer—" and with a smile Lancer cut him off.

"Ah, but this is a trustworthy student whom we all believe would never try to open or damage the presents. He will collect the gifts each day and take down both your name and the name of your assigned recipient." Lancer looked at Dash's whispering group, who fell into abrupt silence. "He will also be under the close observation of students and staff to be sure he is not hassled during all this."

"Who is it?" Dash asked with false enthusiasm.

Danny snorted, the eraser of his pencil slowly tortured between his teeth. Oh were the students ever predictable. Lancer, standing at the front of the class, looked like a sinister villain from a Saturday morning cartoon, everyone in the classroom playing right into his hand. "Why," he began, his lips twitched, a pleased grin attempting to emerge, "the only student we can trust not to care at all about holiday gifts."

Uh oh, this was not good. Danny saw the grin finally spread across his teacher's face, he had a fraction of an idea that he was not going to like what happened next, but before that sliver of sense managed to penetrate his dulled teenage mind Lancer was continuing.

"That student," he declared, "is our very own scrooge, Daniel Fenton."

The pencil he had been nibbling on fell to the desk and Danny stared at Mr. Lancer, smiling at the front of the classroom.

Way to paint a target on his back, gee thanks. He barely registered Dash mumble "Bah Humbug" and the students tittering.

-

It was utterly ridiculous, really it was, but he couldn't find a way around his enraged silence to protest as all the Junior teachers gathered in the teacher's lounge laden with gifts, big and small, collected from their classes. Gifts he, apparently, was going to be in charge of cataloging and guarding.

That wasn't the utterly ridiculous part however, what he thought was ridiculous was that he, Daniel Fenton, number one hater of all things Christmas, had to go around the school for four whole days, seven-thirty am to two-ten pm, with a big, red, velvet bag and collect Christmas gifts and names and not toss the lot into the nearest waste bin available and demand being transferred to a different school, an atheist school preferably.

"This," Mr. Lancer began as he and Principal Ishiyama wheeled a large metal safe into the room, "is a gift from your parents Mr. Fenton." Danny resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Of course he knew it was a gift from his family, he helped build the damn thing, but he kept silent, patiently waiting for Lancer to get to the point so he could flat out refuse and walk away.

"It will be used to store the more dangerous chemicals in the science lab, but up to Friday shall house all the gifts you will be collecting."

"Why don't you just collect them like you did today," Danny, his exasperation having cooled his rage slightly for the moment, addressed them all. "It seems much more logical then to trust a student with all these potentially expensive gifts." Danny pointed to the safe. "If you have that, what's the problem?"

"The problem is, Mr. Fenton, that there are exactly two keys to this safe, one for the science teacher, and one for myself." The principal said. Danny opened his mouth to say he knew all of this, he had, after all, made the damn safe, but seeing as how he was speaking to, you know, the principal, he kept his vocals quiet and let her continue. "If all the teachers are collecting gifts and they don't have a key they'll be forced to leave them here, in the teachers lounge, unguarded, until Lancer or myself can unlock they safe and put them away properly. That gives students ample time to snoop or steal."

Danny hated to admit it, even to himself, but that did make sense. He hadn't thought of that when he suggested just two keys to his parents, he figured if only the science teacher and the principal had a key than fewer students could snag one and get hold of things that would hurt them. He hadn't expected this turn around. "So one student collecting gifts, and holding one of the two keys, isn't just simpler, it's safer." Lancer nodded, glad the child was catching on quickly, but Danny still had to ask. "Why me?" He looked at them all. "You assume simply because I don't want to look at my own gift that would stop me from destroying or stealing any of them to either sell or give away."

"Mr. Fenton." Danny's Algebra II teacher spoke up. "We all hold complete confidence in your high morale." Danny almost snorted, but Lancer beat him to it. "You were already on our short list. You are a trustworthy, honest person. Your abhorrence of the winter season only lent weight to your already extensive qualifications."

This time Danny did roll his eyes, she should have been a literature teacher. Mr. Lancer caught the gesture, but only smirked, probably having thought the very same things. Such big words were wasted on a c average student such as he.

Also, he found it humorous how teachers, and many people these days, fervently avoided using the terms Christmas, or any reference to Santa. Winter season, holiday gifts, mystery gift givers, please.

People were too anal these days.

"In case any of you forgot," Because he knew beyond a fraction of a doubt that they all had to have noticed, "I'm not exactly the safest kid on campus. Making me the guard of expensive Christmas gifts is like asking a mouse to make sure the cat doesn't eat the thanksgiving turkey."

The teachers all pretended to be distracted by the motivational posters on the walls, not going to flat out lie to him, but not looking at him either. All save for Mr. Lancer, whose kind single handedly gave power to jocks and bullies everywhere.

"Mr. Fenton, I assure you that, as of twenty minutes ago you officially became 'the safest kid on campus'." Lancer pulled out a long metal key Danny instantly recognized as belonging to he safe's lock, but with a velvet red ribbon tied to it with three tiny jiggling bells attached to the end. He placed the Christmassed-up key in Danny's hand and with a slight push on his lower back steered him towards the bulky metal box.

Now." He began while Danny was still frantically trying to think of a way out. "open it up and accept your new responsibilities.

-

Dash tapped his pencil impatiently against his desk, the teacher monotoning today's lesson in the background of his universe as he stared up at the clock, willing the bell to ring to signal lunch.

Every year he counted down the days to the last week before Christmas break, the designated time for gift giving on school campus. The days when students everywhere lavished gifts upon those they loved, those they respected, those they wanted to impress, and who was more loved, more respected, than the popular kids?

And who among them more than Dash? Even Paulina, queen and center of her own little universe, gave him a gift each year.

But not this year, no, this year Lancer declared a stupid Secret Santa gig in which every Junior had to go out and get a gift for someone they may not even know. Even if they couldn't afford something grand. Meaning of course that with his luck he probably got some poor kid who shopped at Dollar Tree as his Santa.

Friday would be an embarrassment. Everyone opening their gifts, getting great stuff, and him, him getting some ninety-nine cent store mug with a football painted on the side in lead paint no doubt.

Warning may contain substances known to cause cancer.

Joy.

He couldn't let that happen, he had to figure out who his secret Santa is an, if it was some broke looser, switch the gift out for something cooler. Problem was, Danny Fenton had both the gifts and the list of names. Not too big a problem ordinarily, but every teacher was supposedly keeping a hawk-eye on him.

He had to find a way to get to him.

But how?

-

Danny leaned back in his chair, still in the teacher's lounge, homework, classwork, and notes were neatly placed in a pile beside him for today's classes that he missed, all so generously donated by the teachers who confined him in here. Amazing was that he wanted to do the work more than this idiocy.

Looking down at the clipboard he scanned his smooth, clean handwriting. Names matched with names, some going way out and random, some almost hilariously ironic. Like his own secret Santa being Dash Baxter.

The package wasn't really large or small, and terribly inconspicuous. Dash obviously didn't want him, or anybody else, to know it was from him.

It looked harmless enough but Danny suspected it contained a sick prank of some kind, and while others would no doubt be seriously tempted to open their own gift, Danny stuffed his at the bottom corner of the huge safe, far from sight and far away from him.

With what miniscule temptation he might have had dwelling within him at the prospect of a gift killed mercilessly, with a blender on purée, he began stacking the rest of the presents neatly inside. Polishing off what was left of his lunch he grabbed his work and, sadly, the velvet bag, and headed out to meet his friends.

-

"Hey, we missed you in third period Danny." he was greeted by Sam as he took a seat beside them outside. "You weren't in fourth either."

"Teachers lounge." He answered with a sigh. "They have me doing the Secret Santa Security."

"The what?" Tucker asked around a mouthful of meatloaf.

Sam hit the back of his head causing him to choke. "Remember what our homeroom teacher said this morning?" she asked, "that they put one student in charge of all the gifts?"

"Yeah, the lucky jerk." Tucker answered, Sam hit him again. "Ow, what?!" Danny bunched his shoulders and glared at the carvings in the table. "No way! That's you?" He ducked before Sam could hit him again.

Danny wished he had saved some of his lunch so he could pretend he was concentrating on something other than who was a bitch and who loved who, trying not to meet his friends eyes.

"Oh it's not like it's the end of the world Danny." Sam said in exasperation. "So you collect the gifts for a few days and give them out of Friday, so what? You get of an entire weeks worth of classes too! Not to mention every teacher has their eyes on you so," Sam paused, blinked, "Oh."

"Yeah, oh." Danny mimicked. "I disappear for two seconds and people will go ballistic." He ducked his head when the lunch lady peeked her head out, glancing around the grassy lunch area before she spotted them and with a wrinkled smile waved. Only when she was safely inside the school did he continue. "I can't go ghost for risk of discovery, and god help everyone if a ghost attacks at all during the school day because all the teachers will instinctively be looking for me."

"I figure they'll instinctively be looking to save their own behinds, but if you want to think you're so important." Sam shrugged, taking one last gulp of her apple juice before crumbling up her trash.

"Yeah Danny, and besides what are the chances of ghosts attacking during the school day this week? That would be incredibly coincidental." A bright flash of green zoomed by inches behind Tucker, disturbing the air around them and kicking up a wind that knocked his biretta off and blew Danny and Sam's hair into their faces.

"You were saying?" Sam glared, brushing her shoulder length black hair back away from her mouth.

"I'm going—gah!" Danny was interrupted by the groundskeeper grabbing his arm and tugging him up the stairs and inside the school, he never got even a small glance of who was attacking.

"You were saying?" Tucker grumbled back at her.

A large saber-toothed rabbit jumped down right in front of them and roared, effectively cutting off whatever argument would have ensued.

"Danny!" They cried out in unison.

-

"Guys really, you're both acting like it's my fault a ghost attacked and I got locked up in the faculty bathroom." He muttered as he trudged through the hallway after lunch. "It's very clean in there by the way, with like, magazines and everything."

Sam glared up at him, the hairbrush caught on a drying clump of rabbit slobber, Tucker just kept fiddling with the singed hole in his precious hat.

"Danny, we aren't blaming you for that, what I'm wanting to know is, once you were safely locked away and out of danger, why didn't you go ghost and kick butt? No one would have noticed." Sam argued.

"I did, but then Lancer caught me, and threw me back, in the same bathroom." Danny said in exasperation. "And was in there with me until it was clear!"

Sam and Tucker winced. It had been half an hour before the usual ghost alert system had called the Fentons and Maddie had put the rabbit ware-bunny's rampage to a stop. Half an hour with Lancer.

"Well, you should be used to it right? What with all those detentions," Tucker tried at humor, slipping his biretta back on his head with a half hearted smile as they reached their lockers. "And now school is out for the rest of the day thanks to all the damage that bugs bunny out there did."

"Yeah, thanks for the uplift Tuck." Danny grumbled, tucking the gift-name clipboard under his arm and shoving the red gift bag into the locker while simultaneously taking his backpack out in one fluid motion. He had developed the habit of keeping his locker open for the least amount of time possible since freshman year.

It paid off, apparently, as Just as he closed the locker Dash Baxter was up beside him, looming with a scowl on his face. "Hey Fenton." He ground out and Danny instinctively pressed himself up against the locker, hoping his weight would prevent the jock from being able to open it and shove him in.

"He-hey Dash," he managed to get out when he realized Dash was waiting for an answer.

"Hey." He repeated, swallowing, Danny watched the movement of his throat, he looked hesitant. "Mind if I walk home with you?"

"What?" Danny snapped his gaze back up to the face right above him.

"Walk, you and me." Dash said between clenched teeth. Danny chanced a glance over to where his friends were, or rather, where the used to be. He saw them, walking in the distance, two familiar heads in a thick crowd of students. "Do you want to?"

"Uh, _why_?" Danny felt one of his eyes twitch at the word, expecting pain at questioning Dash Baxter.

"Because." Dash leaned over, his hand connecting with the Danny's locker, index finger spinning the combination idly, stalling. "There are a few kids who wanted to jump you after school, and I'd rather not have my gift be among the ones they steel." Dash muttered the lie.

"Oh." Danny relaxed, just a little. What a shallow and completely predictable answer. Sam would have snorted, if she were there. A tiny, very pissed little voice in his mind grumbled but he mentally squashed it down and kept his attention on Dash. "No need to worry about that, all the gifts are in the safe."

Dash leaned back, shoving his hands in his pockets, looking down at Danny out of the corner of his eye. "Safe?"

"Yeah," Still touching the locker, though not pressing up against it so much anymore Danny reached under his shirt and pulled out the key he had shoved there. "I've got the only key besides the principal, and I put the gifts inside every day right after I get them." He explained. "I don't take any of them home with me."

"Oh." Dash said, filing the information away quickly before his attention waned, "But, they don't know that." He took a hand out of his pocket and picked up his backpack, which he had dropped on the ground near Danny's locker, and slung it over his shoulder.

"Well, no."

"Then I'm walking you home."

"But, you don't have to worry about you—"

"I'm walking you home." Dash said, and grabbed Danny's arm, tugging him along. Danny yelped, barely keeping hold of his backpack and the clipboard as he was forcibly pulled into motion.

"O-Okay." He said, getting his feet under him into the familiar pattern of walking.

-

"Weatherman says it'll snow tomorrow." Dash said in way of conversation as they walked. Danny had long since yanked his arm back and wrapped his scarf around his neck and face. Dash thought he looked idiotic; Danny just didn't want to see his own breath and spend the whole way home expecting ghosts to jump out and go boo. There was still at least a week or so before the Christmas truce started, and he didn't exactly enjoy the rush of fighting that always came right before the downtime.

"Gee, won't that be swell."

"What's your problem Fenton? You don't like snow?" Dash glared down at the trudging teen.

"No, actually I love snow, have a real affinity towards it." Danny mumbled.

"What's that Fenton?"

"I just don't like this time of year okay?' Danny snapped, head tilting up to meat Dash's cold glare with his own. "It puts me on edge."

"Why?"

"Christmas, snow, Santa, a million other reasons," Danny bent his shoulders down again and started walking faster. "I'm doing much better this year than I did last year, and last year was tons better than the year before, which may have been my worst and best Christmas ever, but I can't get over a lifetimes worth of hating it, because I still hate it."

"Um, why?" Dash's long strides easily kept up with Danny.

"Because I just do."

Dash shrugged. 'okay, filing that under the things I don't know about Fenton tab.' Dash grimaced when he saw the towering op center and all its protruding ghost hunting mechanisms. "Haven't been here in a while." He reflected out loud.

"Since about when?" Danny asked, sounding a bit too eager to change the topic.

"Last summer, the big graduation party your parents threw for your sister."

"Oh yeah." Danny remembered, he remembered having half the school in his house and not being able to talk to anyone because the only people he associated with were Sam and Tucker, who were away on summer trips with their families. 'They're always there for Danny Phantom,' Danny thought 'why does it seem they're never around when Danny Fenton needs them?'

"Well, here we are, I'm home, safe and sound, the key remains around my neck, nobody hassled me or seemed threatening in the least, aside from you that is, and look, Dad got the Christmas lights up with only a few roof shingles broken. I'd say it was an accomplishing day wouldn't you?"

"No need to thank me, your sarcasm says it all."

"Yeah well…" Danny was in an awkward situation here, he would rather be eating the Lunch Lady's fruitcake really. "Thanks, I guess, for the escort."

"Yeah um, well just looking out for what's mine." Dash crossed his arms and looked down the street. Danny fiddled with his keys, finally putting one in the lock and turning it, listening as the deadbolt slid back into its little cavern in the door.

Danny opened the door, stood there in the threshold a moment, "Well, see you tomorrow, I guess."

"Um, hey." Dash put his hand of the door just as Danny was about to close it. "The ice rink, Kwan's family owns it, they said if it snows tomorrow they'll throw a big party eight pm, you're invited."

"Kwan's family owns the ice rink?" Danny looked a bit surprised. "What, no restaurant, no Laundromat, no corner store?" he smirked.

"Watch it Fenton, that's almost a racist comment."

"Hell, it is a racist comment." Danny said, and shut the door.

"Fenton?!" Dash shouted through the door.

"What?"

"The party?"

"Maybe." And music was suddenly blasted. Dash had an odd feeling of having just finished a very bad first date.

Shaking it off he hoped down from the porch and headed home, trying to get his bewildered mind to focus on what he'd just learned today and formulate some kind of a plan.

-

The first half of my two-shot Silver Bells, hope you lot enjoyed it. This is not slash. Okay? Not. Slash. Same as my one-shot You Know Dasher is not slash. The only Slash Christmas based fic I'm doing is Width of a Thread, and that isn't even really Christmas related, just a Christmas gift.

Sorry to everyone who expected this to be up sooner. You know, Life.

On a less chipper note, I've started to edit Time of Death II Rigor to be more, reader friendly. Want an Excerpt?

_Dash leaned against the tombstone, the carved marble statue of his hero still sat, ever motionless, atop it. Danny's legs were on either side of him, the curved stone knees reached his shoulders before the legs tilted back to travel up and join the hips planted in a permanent seat against the grave marker. He stared longingly at the upturned face of his lost friend and foe, who in turn continued his wistful stargazing. _

_He had forgone the usual black cloak this night because it had begun a warm, refreshing evening. Yet as the moon rose higher, having begun its ascent sometime around midnight, the ground relinquished its last reserves of warmth stored within the sun-baked earth to the evening air. The dew that normally sprinkled each delicate yet robust blade of grass had turned to frost, and cracked under his weight as he shifted, his neck becoming strained from gazing so far back, and tried not to think about how his head was resting in the statue's lap. The night had slowly become bitterly cold, as it always is in the darkest hours, just before the sun rose. But the calm that hung about the cemetery was heavier than usual, the chill deeper._

_Perhaps it was the absence of his thick, woolen mantle, though he still dressed in warm black slacks and sweater, or maybe it was the absence of his grief stricken companions. Who were not so much in mourning anymore but apprehensive of life and its end. As they went on with their lives, coming up to the grave only a few occasions a month Dash continued his nightly visits with an ardor that spoke obsession. In truth, it had become habit, like returning home to your spouse at the end of the day. By love or obligation, you felt the tug in your body that said you belonged there, even when you did not want to be. And at this moment, Dash did not want to be._

_He should have left hours ago. What was the use of coming out to the grave in the first place? In the beginning they had all clustered around it together by sheer coincidence, having all felt the compelling need to see it again, if only to solidify the fact in their minds that Daniel Fenton truly was gone. _

_An unspoken plan was made between them, they would come here every night and visit him, sitting on blankets and talking of him, to him, hoping he would hear wherever he was. But Dash knew he couldn't hear, because all that remained in the ground below his feet was a body, a shell, a sack of rotten flesh for the worms and maggots to digest. Fenton wasn't here anymore, and perhaps had not been since the day he died._

_The day he died. Dash could remember it so clearly, too clearly. Maybe it was the cold bitterness of the night or just that the sun would rise in a few hours and he hadn't slept, but he felt tired. So tired, and the weight of what had happened pressed hard on him. _

_He hadn't wanted to believe it, wouldn't believe it. When he read the paper and saw that Danny Fenton had gone missing he had joked, laughed, remarked on the disappearance with his friends, because they all believed he was like every other teen, just running away and having fun. He would show up again soon._

_And he did, but it was not what they had expected. _

Like that? Now you're probably thinking, 'this doesn't sound so bad! Rin, honestly, you're overreacting.' How about I give you the mildest, most toned down image of death I have here, no wait, damn I still have to cut and edit some parts to make it fit with the teen rating of Silver Bells. Damn.

_Danny lay flaccid on the stainless steel operating table, flesh from his forehead peeled and lying in a limp fold over a portion of his empty eye sockets, an oblong section of the skull had been removed and his brain glistened in the harsh lights brought in by the forensics team. His ordinarily pale skin was a ghastly white save for the purple discolorations lining his back and the underside of his arms and legs where blood had pooled. The coroner was correct, unlike the usual amateur slice and grab of street organ harvesting, a simple slashing through the abdomen from navel to breastplate, Daniel Fenton had been cut from each shoulder to just under the sternum and downward in the usual Y pattern, his breastplate sawed through and removed, lying innocently in all its grisly glory in a basin next to a bloody cranial saw looking for all the world like a campy Halloween decoration, to reveal what remained of his organs, wet and plump, juicy from the spilled blood._

Disappointed? Well, when the body is first discovered it is a lot creepier, but then it was discovered in a dark meat locker. Like the intense lights now brightening the body, I made the second description of him lighter, less grisly. I figured the excerpt should fit with my teen rating here, but the story itself will probably be pushing the M rating limits. Just wanted to let everyone who has been bugging me know, yes it will be posted one day.

The original, uncensored version will probably be posted on several ero-guro sites I frequent, where the disgustingness of it all will be most appreciated.

Enjoy your Christmassy fic and the nice bitter aftertaste of dissected Danny Phantom.

-Rin

I feel dirty now….yay.


	2. Sleigh Ride

Turned out it did snow, good news for the weatherman and his sensitive physic powers of magnificence, bad news to the poor unfortunate people who had to actually, you know, GO places. Danny tossed his scarf around his neck, judged the nasty looking grey skies; it would probably be thicker than horror movie fog up there, and hit the street, clipboard in his gloved hand.

At the corner, where he had the wonderful pleasure of living, a Rolls Royce swung around the curve, skidded on the turn due to the slick frosting on the road, and fishtailed the curb to roll neatly to a stop just a little to the right of Danny's home. The first thing in Danny's mind was _'who died?'_

Then the door slipped open and out folded a tall burly blonde in a Letter Jacket.

And if the way the man was driving didn't immediately point to insanity, the bright grin sitting evilly on his face did, a grin that always promised pain. And the dope actually had the chops to glare directly at him and jut his thumb out in the direction of his car in the unmistakable motion known to all. _Get in._

"Sha, right." Danny said aloud, easily turning and walking away without so much as a small twinge of guilt that the guy drove all the way down here on a deadly ice covered street to pick him up, for whatever reason. Simply because whatever awaited him in that car would no doubt be painful, humiliating, uncomfortable, or just plain irritating, or likely all of the above. Yeah, not today buster.

"Fenton, get you're scrawny ass in this car right now or I'm mowing you over."

There was that, and the fact that the third step he took away from the whole scene was more a slippery stumble that almost landed him on his ass in cold wet snow. The whole friggen walk to school was a potential deathtrap and if he wasn't mistaken his internal thermometer, because he had cryokinesis and as such should know these things, registered around the hideous 12 degrees.

With a shaky sigh, and a slight adjustment of his scarf, he allowed himself to be drawn into the potential warmth of Dash's fancy car.

In they both slid, doors shutting simultaneously, giving the whole thing an eerie out of place feeling.

Dash just smiled and Danny edged into the corner of his seat, shoulder against the door. A creepier scenario would have to be him and the box ghost at a picnic. "So uh…why?" He extended his hands in a manner as though to scoop the whole car up into it and present it to the jock, eye twitching in restrained terror when Dash took off with a lurch, rounding the curve once again, way too fast.

Dash shrugged. "It snowed. I wanted to make sure you remembered the party."

"You could have just idly mentioned it while crushing me up against my books in my locker." He muttered.

"Eh…yeah but there's no school today so…" Dash scratched the hair on his neck and Danny sat up straighter.

"Snow day?" he asked in a high voice, then his eyes narrowed. "It snowed yesterday too, why today."

" Yesterday was a sheet, today is a blanket." He took his eyes off the road for a moment to glare at his passenger. "And who the hell cares why? Schools out isn't it?" Danny tensed, not from Dash's cold eyes, but from the frozen road dangers he was no longer watching.

"Eyes on the road! Hey! Drive, oh god drive!" He griped his seatbelt until it was bunched and wrinkled in his hands.

Dash quickly looked back to the street and jerked the wheel, narrowly missing a bulky dumpster covered in frosting. "Why the hell do people put those things so far out?" Dash angrily yelled.

Danny chose not to point out that Dash had just turned down an alley and as such it was his fault he almost hit the trash, instead bunching half his face up behind his scarf.

"Nice ride." He mumbled through the thick fabric, eyes dancing across the caramel tone of the wood laid into the dashboard. Sam would kill Dash if she ever saw this car.

"Yeah my parents thought it appropriate since I was graduating here." At Danny's confused glance he pointed to the steering wheel. "It's a Phantom." Danny's mouth made a little O behind his scarf, but Dash didn't notice. "A Phantom Drophead Coupe, I couldn't believe it when they handed me the keys. I almost died and became a ghost myself." He grinned, his glance falling to the hood of the car where stainless steel glistened.

Danny glanced from the wood to the stereo. Did the control knobs really have to be chrome? Rich people seriously over did it sometimes. He felt a stirring of envy in his gut.

"It's quiet." Danny muttered. Though Dash weaved in and out of traffic with a suicidal glee that the most adventurous speed racer would cringe at Danny noticed the sound of the whooshing air and street were more a drumming then a roar. "I always figured soft tops would be noisier."

" Yeah, well not this one." If there was one thing Dash enjoyed, it was showing off. And this car was perfect fodder for that. He glanced out of the corner of his eye to watch Fenton's fingers grace across the wood veneer. "You know the tonneau is wood too."

Danny resisted the urge to glance behind him. "It's a convertible?" They swung around again and Danny rung the seat belt in his fists. "Oh god." He muttered, shutting his eyes. His father drove better than Dash.

They drove by a bus stop cluttered with kids, which was strange, junior and elementary kids didn't catch the bus for another hour, and if they were going to school, the high school should still be open as well.

It was only after they had whizzed by that Danny noticed he recognized some of those kids. This meant that school had to still be going on, which meant that Dash had lied to him, which meant that wherever they were going was not where he wanted to be.

"Stop the car." Danny snapped so suddenly and so loudly that Dash jerked the steering wheel, almost swerving into another lane and thus into an oncoming car.

"What the hell!" Dash shouted, quickly getting back a safe distance into his own side, ignoring the honks of those behind him as he swerved carelessly. "Jeeze Fenton, what's that deal?" He asked, eyes quickly turning to stare at the stiffened teen before snapping back to the road.

"You're the deal. Let me out." Danny gripped the door handle threateningly. "Stop this car and let me out."

"What is this all a sudden?" Dash demanded, but slowed his car from the sonic speeds it had been going to one actually within the legal limit.

"School is not canceled today you liar, and I am not going anywhere with you." Danny had to remind himself that just because everything wasn't going by in a blur anymore did not mean it was safe to bail out yet.

Dash looked stricken for a second then tried to cajole. "Fenton listen you-"

"No, stop this car right now and let me out. I don't give a damn if you decide to beat me to a pulp every day for the rest of the year; wherever you're going I am not going with." And he added. "I probably wouldn't survive the trip anyway with the way you drive."

Dash pulled the car into a lot simply so he could focus his attention on Danny instead of the road, but when Danny turned towards the exit he snapped his hand to the door locks.

Danny pulled on the handle, when nothing happened he pulled on it again, then a third time, then a fourth. His head swerved around to pin Dash with a killer glare faster than Dash could take a curve on the icy road.

"Now listen." Dash started but Danny's hand had found the lock button and Dash had to quickly relock it before Danny could get out. Danny glared at him again, and unlocked it again. Dash relocked it.

It went like that for a while. Dash and Danny locking and unlocking the doors, glaring at each other while the sounds of clicks went on around them as the locks were shifted back and forth.

"Damn it let me out." Danny said, jerking on the handle with unnecessary force. "I don't care what excuse you come up with I'm not going anywhere with you."

"I just wanted to take you to the freaking ice rink, what is the big deal?" Dash demanded, keeping his hand close to the lock control unless Danny tried to get out again.

"Yeah a place owned by one of your friends." Danny snapped. "During a school day when it will undoubtedly be deserted and you know Lancer has me on gift duty."

"Don't be so suspicious Fenton." Dash retorted. "I told you we're just going to a party."

"Since when do I ever go to a party with you?" Danny slumped up against the door, arms crossed. "Why the hell are you being so god awful nice to me if you aren't planning anything?" Not that threatening him with vehicular manslaughter, lying to him about school, and trapping him in a car, even an expensive car, could be adequately seen as god awful nice, but it was better than his usual treatment.

Dash was irritated that the first thing to Danny's mind was that he had something planned, never mind the fact that he was actually planning something. "Its freaking Christmas, don't you think maybe I might want to do something nice?"

"Since when do you ever do anything nice?" Danny tried for the lock again, this time beating Dash by half a second, managing to open the door just as the locks slid back into place. "Especially to me?" He attempted to slide out, but was held down by his unbuckled seat belt. "auhg!" he let out a frustrated moan.

"So just because I've never done it before I can't do it now?" Dash demanded, gripping the steering wheel and leaning over. "I can't ever do anything nice?"

"You did do something nice." Danny twisted, turned, and finally managed to hit the release button and untangle himself from the straps. "You walked me home yesterday. That's as nice as you can get with me." He practically dove out of the vehicle, clipboard in hand, backpack over his shoulder, marching towards the street.

"Fenton get back here!" Dash shouted from the driver's seat. Danny had left the door open and Dash hunched down to rage at him through the opening.

"No way!" Danny called back, and when Dash threatened him he flung up a finger above his shoulder.

Dash swore, leaning back completely in his seat and gripping the wheel to go after him, at a reasonable pace so as not to hit anything and tear his still open door off. He swung the car around a few others parked there, snarling at the gawking bystanders who overheard a few scraps of their argument.

Danny had upgraded to a jog by the time Dash finally maneuvered out of the labyrinth of parked cars with his own perfectly intact and was rounding a corner into a side alley leading to the back of the building. Gritting his teeth Dash chanced a faster pace, halting just at the entranceway and jumping out of the car to pear over the hood.

Into an empty alley.

"Fenton!" he roared, but there was no one. Nothing. Not even a dumpster or pile of garbage bags. It was just an empty side street. With an enraged growl Dash stormed all the way round the car to slam the passenger side door before heading off to the skate rink alone.

This was so not worth it.

-

Danny let out his breath with a deep whoosh when the car rolled away from the alley with its enraged driver. Taking his hand off the dumpster he had hid behind, letting it turn solid and visible once again, he leaned up against it and just breathed. He knew if the bulky item had been visible Dash would have searched behind and inside it and wouldn't have given up until he was sure Danny was no longer there, and he had wanted the blonde to move on as quickly as possible.

A firm grip on his clipboard he shot into the air with a flash of white rings, warmth spreading through him as ethereal power surged over his body, the slightly dormant ghostly energy coating his very essence bursting to life.

Clipboard and backpack, jacket, scarf, it all disappeared and he was free to fly about unhindered, zooming across buildings at a speed that whipped his hair about and made it difficult to breathe, but the exhilaration he had from the experience took his breath away anyhow, so it didn't matter. In no time he was closing in on his school and descending. Body disappearing, losing density, slowing down. He touched down on campus with barely enough weight to disturb the blades of grass beneath his invisible feet.

And then he was whole again, whole and normal and gripping his clipboard. He stepped away from the tree he appeared behind and walked purposefully towards the school. Hoping against all his common sense and experience that this very, very annoying start to his morning was not the lesson plan for the entire day.

But, alas, `twas not to be.

-

"Mr. Fenton, to the activities office please, Mr. Fenton to the activities office." The loudspeaker blared when the first bell of the day had finished wailing its agonized screech.

Danny halted in his procession to his homeroom class, a class he was not going to be on time to for the second day that week. Sam and Tucker looked at him and he gripped his velvety red gift bag in irritation. There were already five new things inside since he took it out of his locker, and several more names jotted down on the clipboard.

"I'm not even allowed in homeroom?" he practically whined.

"Dude, you'd think you'd be glad to get out of class." Tucker socked his arm, him and Sam starting to fold to the current, walking back into the river of students to their own classroom. Danny shot them both an irritated glance.

"Danny just do it will you, it'll be fine." Sam cajoled him. "We'll see you at lunch."

Then they were gone, into the pressing throng of bodies and Danny was seriously considering staying in the teachers' lounge all day and ignoring them. He mentally sneered, he did have work after all, surely they would understand.

"Mr. Fenton, I believe they're waiting for you." Danny turned to see a janitor leaning on the water fountain he was supposed to be fixing. Danny glared at him in hatred. If this were a cartoon the leaking fountain would dislodge itself from the wall, dumping the man on the ground and shooting water out to wet everybody within its jet stream.

Sadly this was no cartoon, and the man continued to stare at him through narrowed eyes of creepiness until Danny sluggishly flung the gift bag over his shoulder, spun on his heel, and marched off to the activities office for yet another day of torturous holiday cheer.

-

"Yo, Fenton." sang a deep voice from behind the desk.

"Hey Kwan, where is everybody?" he turned around in the empty office. The activities office should have been bigger, considering how many activities went on at this school, but sadly the room was the size of a large walk in closet, made even smaller by the desk, filing cabinets, and chairs shoved into it.

Kwan shrugged "It's always empty early morning, at least for the first fifteen minutes of it." He was sitting behind the desk, reclining really, and shuffling through a bunch of papers like he was looking for something. "Lancer said he wanted to talk to you, but he left real quick right after. He probably needed to run to his homeroom real quick."

Danny scowled. He was in Lancers homeroom, why did he have to be called to this cramped office just so the teacher could ditch him.

"He'll be back soon though, I'm sure." Kwan set the papers down and took his feet off the desk. "Hey, um…Dash told you about the party this morning right?"

Danny cocked his head. "Yeah?" Actually, Dash had told him about it yesterday afternoon, but he'd keep to whatever line the jock had fed Kwan.

Kwan seemed to ease back then. "Good, cuz I certainly didn't want to be the one inviting you." He grinned. Danny's scowl depended.

"What's the big deal?" He demanded. "Why are you all acting so weird?"

Kwan snorted. "Not me dude, Dash. He comes out of nowhere yesterday calling me asking if he could bring you." Intelligence seemed to clobber him then and he turned to smile at the smaller teen. "Not that I have a problem with you being there, you know cuz it is like, Christmas and the whole 'be nice to others thing' you know what I mean?"

Danny willed his brow to flatten and hoped he didn't look lethal or anything. "Yeah, I guess." He shrugged in a fake casual manner. Why the hell had Dash wanted to invite him? This was getting creepy. "Know exactly why he wanted to drag me to this thing?" He let a bit of his paranoia seep into his voice. Kwan wasn't the brightest of the flickering florescent bulbs that mad up the A-list, but he certainly wasn't stupid. Not like Dash anyway, who wouldn't pick up on subtleties if his life depended on it.

Kwan smirked at the suspicious tone. "Not a clue." He said through his teeth, and though Danny knew he should really doubt the Asian, he believed him.

"Who knows what goes through a jocks mind?" Danny said, ending their conversation as he turned on his heel to leave the office. "Tell Lancer I'm in the Teachers Lounge." He threw over his shoulder. "If he asks that is."

"Uh, Fenton?" Kwan had stood up a bit from his chair. Danny paused on his way out to turn back to him.

"Lancer didn't want to see me." He guessed, Kwan kind of nodded, looking a bit torn. "What did you need Kwan."

"You…you know who my se—erm who I'm Secret Santa to." He blushed a bit.

Danny thought back and nodded, Kwan and his Secret Santa had both turned their presents in and so Danny knew both. "Yes?"

"You won't…you won't tell her will you?" Kwan asked "If she asks you…you won't tell her?"

"I'm not allowed." Danny answered flatly, but at Kwan's desperately embarrassed look he decided to give him this one little promise. "Okay, I won't tell her, alright? She'll never know."

"Even if she asks? Even if she bribes you and stuff?" Kwan pleaded.

"Yes, even if she offers to pay me a billion dollars I won't ever tell her, sheesh." Danny swore. "Is that all?"

Kwan nodded, easing back into the deckchair. "I'll…I'll see you at the party I guess." Kwan said with an awkward smile.

"Yeah, I guess.." Danny said, turning to leave.

"Hey Fenton?" Danny suppressed a groan and turned sharply to snap.

"What?"

Kwan dipped his chin in a bit at the sharp reply. "Uh…Dash isn't really planning nothing, if you want to know. He..well he always tells me if he is, and he hasn't so..well he's not."

Danny nodded tightly. "Thanks." He said, and strode out.

Like hell he was going to believe anything Dash's best friend said.

-

Dash sat on the steps of the Skate rink with some of the other ditchers, many of them seniors and Freshmen, and glowered at the parking lot. The rink was completely set up inside for the party, the big excuse they all had used to skip school, and so they basically had nothing to do the remainder of the day but wait for classes to end and the rest of the partygoers to arrive.

He kicked a clump of hard ice off the concrete beneath his shoes and tried to figure out how strongly he had to glare at a single patch of snow until it started to melt under the intensity.

Really Kwan's family loved to have any reason to throw a party, as it usually meant more money for the business, and had used the oh so fabulous excuse of snow to get as many teens in here as possible.

"Yo, Dash," he looked up at one of the seniors, "why didn't Kwan skip, man? It's his bash, he should have ditched like the rest of us."

Dash shrugged. "Said something about having a question to ask someone." He explained "Besides, what's there to do here? We can't dig into anything till the party starts anyway."

"I guess." The guy said, turning back to converse with his own friends.

Dash sighed. What was wrong with him? He should be dragging the guys out to the parking lot or something to play ball, not sitting here moping on the steps. He wasn't that upset about Fenton's bailout, it wasn't like he had expected the teen to just suddenly trust him and go wherever right? Besides, he was sure it wasn't Fenton's rejection that was jabbing at him.

But he couldn't place what else could be troubling him.

He stood up. "I'mma go back to class." He announced, by habit really. He didn't care if they knew where he was at or not.

"What? Why?" A freshman balked, the idea of leaving all these upperclassmen for school not really making sense in his mind.

"Cuz you all are dull that's why." Dash snapped. "I'm out, later."

He trudged back to his car, mulling over just what could have put him in this foul-assed mood.

-

"How's it going in here?" Danny looked up to see Lancer with a cup of coffee and a rather large sandwich.

"Okay I guess." He replied, glancing back to the clipboard where he was recording the last few names of the gifts he had put in the safe, and making a mental note of those who had yet to turn one in. Despite how many he had been laden down with since this morning, there were still over a hundred gifts yet to be recorded. "It's only the second day, so I think it's all going pretty nice."

Lancer pulled a chair over to the circular table and set his lunch down. "You can expect at least twenty students to not bring anything in, as there are always those who outright refuse to give anything to others, and I'd expect a few holiday cards, and even some gift certificates instead of a present." Lancer told him casually. Danny nodded, he'd already collected dozens of cards. "Now then," Lancer used a finger to pull the board to the center between them, "time to eat."

"Uhn." Danny said, looking a bit nervous. "I guess I go to the cafeteria then." Lancer sat him back down in the chair with a heavy gaze.

"Mr. Fenton, I know my bulbous gut may be misleading, but I can't eat this all myself." He indicated to the sandwich. Danny stared at him incredulously. "It's not poisonous, teacher's honor."

Danny raised an eyebrow. "Is it toasted?" he asked suspiciously." Lancer blinked, but said it wasn't. "Good." He sighed, then smiled and declared softly, "I hate toast."

"I'd never guess."

-

There was, surprisingly, no ghost attack during school. This simply meant that whoever chose to attack that day was a more familiar enemy who gave him some space for class work. Possibly Skulker, though Johnny and Kitty were a more likely guess since there was a party going on tonight, and they loved to crash parties.

Then again, Walker was usually so subtle that he could have used his time at school to simply set up for a big attack.

And Ember too, she planned things out beforehand.

He'd have his hands full tonight.

"I am the BoxGhost!" Came a shout from behind him, jolting him out of his thoughts.

He spun around and huffed, glaring at the ectoplasmic manifestation in blue overalls. "Stay away from the gifts." He growled, trying not to let it show how much the sudden appearance actually did startle him.

The BoxGhost looked a bit put off, but then coughed and said, "I am not here for your puny wrapped packages. For they are now beneath me," Danny cocked a brow, "I am here for, um..." He looked around frantically. "THIS!" he snagged a Chinese take-out box from the trash bin and, clutching it to his chest yelled "Beware!" and was gone.

Danny shook his head. Talk about speaking too soon.

With a light snigger he closed and locked the safe, tucking the key back under his shirt, and grabbed his bag and clipboard. Time to leave, just a quick stop by the lockers and then he could head home to get ready for this party-thing Kwan's family was throwing.

-

The bell rang and teens of all variety began filling the hall, watching it was kind of hypnotic in a way. The quiet, cool hallways with its florescent lighting collecting dust and dead bugs behind the plastic covers, and tiled floor marred by skid marks and chemical spills and unlimited mysterious stains that no amount of mopping would ever rid of, so suddenly split open, like a thunderclap. From the end of the hall, gazing towards the oncoming crowd, a mind could become poetic, philosophical even.

If of course, the person wasn't currently arguing with the hall monitor about exactly what time the doors to the school were unlocked for release.

Danny's watch said it was time to go, the hall clock said it was time to go, even the janitor said it was time to go, but someone messed with the bell system and so it had to be rung manually, which meant a two minute delay, and the holder of the keys refused to unlock the doors until the bell sounded.

So when it finally did ring, and Danny looked at the woman in uniform expectantly, she made a really show of taking her sweet time opening the large front double doors, even going so far as to pretend she couldn't find the right key.

It was all very frustrating, so of course he wasn't in the mood for philosophical poetry about the tides of human youth rising and falling within the educational system, or the fact that it was backlogging behind him and the monitor in a nice little crowd, and that if the door wasn't opened soon the flow would pressurize and someone was going to get hurt.

Finally the door was opened and Danny darted out and skipped the steps to avoid the surge of anxious bodies behind him. Shrugging off the fact that he would have been out of there two minutes earlier if he had kept his big mouth shut and let the stiff twist the rules to fit her bad mood he decided to cut across the parking lot while it was still free of flying cars and get home in time to change.

"Yo Fenton!" a hand covered his mouth from behind and tugged him backwards, he recognized the voice and figured he'd either fall into a hard chest or the hard ground. Instead he found himself in the back seat of Dash's car.

"I think some people in the GSA have a short story about something like this." Danny said as he struggled to pull his feet in before Kwan slammed the door, Dash was behind him, or rather under him since his head was in the jock's lap.

"Wouldn't surprise me, there are some seriously messed up pervs in that club." Dash said, shoving the teen off him and exiting the vehicle to be seated in the driver's seat.

"You wouldn't happen to know where a guy could get a copy of that now would you?' Kwan joked from the passenger seat, at Dash's disgusted glare he said, "What? I wanna know who tops."

"I figured it'd be obvious." Dash growled.

"I figured I'd have time to change before I was hijacked, again, by someone who publicly humiliates me on a daily basis." Danny quipped from the backseat, rising from his position on his back.

"You hijacked him before?" Kwan smirked, "dude no wonder people write stories about you."

"I think there's also a fan club, but that's just internet hearsay." Danny got his seat belt buckled just in time, because Dash lurched out of the parking spot, almost hitting a group of skaters, "With like, fanart and stuff."

"Realistic or cartoon?" Kwan asked and Dash hit him. "Ow, okay changing the subject!" He turned in his seat and looked at Danny, a smile still ghosting his lips. "Still," he said mischievously, "You're awfully calm for someone who just got pulled into the back seat of the car of someone who people write stories about raping you."

Dash swerved suddenly and Kwan got thrown back against the side of the car, he didn't have his seat belt on.

Danny bit his lip to keep from laughing. "Well as much as I'd enjoy fueling the fire with stories about how this is hardly the first time I've been in the back seat of a car with Dash Baxter, I just expected something like this since he was practically ready to explode when I bailed out on him this morning. But, you know, I kind of expected it to come with a black eye."

"That could still be included in the package." The driver growled from between his hunched shoulders.

"Change of subject?" Danny offered the Asian with an amused smile.

"Change of subject." Was the answer. Kwan wasted a moment of thought wondering where the awkwardness of this morning's conversation went, but decided that being with Dash made him more comfortable and brought out a bit more aggression in Danny's speech. "So…" he began and Danny looked expectantly at him to continue the thought, clearly enjoying his struggle now that the joking had ceased.

"So, do you know how to skate Fenton?" Dash jumped in.

Danny smiled tensely, "I can learn."

-

Cut it off here because I'm focusing all my writing skills and spare time on finishing this next update for Photo Opportunities. It will be up either by or before Christmas. Even if I have to cut it short again.


End file.
